Fellow Travellers,
am travelling from Sydney, Australia in December and will start my journey in Orlando and finish in San Francsco. Will be with my famliy, wife and two daughters( 6 & 10). Will be stopping in New Orleans, San Antonio, El Paso, Scottsdale, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, San Diego and San Francisco. Using those points of reference, could you please advise me about some of the points of interests(including hotels, trips,best features, etc) in those cities and places. We will be on the road for about 5 weeks. I look forward to any advice, as we are really looking forward to seeing Southern America.
Regards and best wishes.

Hi, Tony!

Your posting gave me a real feeling of deja vu; last December/January I holidayed in the southern US for five weeks with my Aussie family (girls 7 and 9), and we visited just about all the places on your list (not Scottsdale or San Diego). We were on a budget trip travelling on a 30-day Greyhound pass, so maybe our dirt-cheap hotel experiences (like the Gateway in El Paso, $25 for a family room) won't be of interest to you or anyone on this site... so instead of taking up valuable web space, I will instead invite you to email me at the above address if you want to talk... I come from Sydney, so maybe we can even talk by phone if you think our experiences might be of use to you.
We did Orlando in December also.... Disney World was great (and warm!)the three days we were there, with virtually no waiting, on December 11 - 13, but I hear it gets massively packed a few days after this, so I hope you are going in EARLY December!

Since you're coming in December, you may have a chance at some skiing, if you're interested. How much snow there is will depend on the fall weather, as well as when in December you travel. The areas around Ruidoso, NM and Flagstaff, AZ would not be out of your way. Equipment rental, lift tickets, and a beginners' lesson are often rolled into one price.

As you drive into Texas, it would be worth a detour to see Space Center Houston. Natural Bridge Caverns is an interesting cave near San Antonio that your kids would probably enjoy.

You will be passing Big Bend National Park, to the south when you get to West Texas. It's worth a detour for a couple of days. Closer to the interstate in West Texas is Davis Mountains State Park; there is an observatory there that our kids enjoyed 2 years ago.

I wouldn't plan to spend much time in El Paso, since you will have soaked up a little Mexican culture in San Antonio, and you would have other stops ahead with more to offer.

Calsbad Caverns NP would be a great place to stop for a day or two. The caves are really impressive.

I'd also suggest detouring north from El Paso through Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM, to the Mesa Verde area in Southwestern Colorado. Monument Valley is west of there. You could take in a couple more national parks in Utah, then make your way down through the Navajo reservation to the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, then Scottsdale.

It sounds like you should plan on buying a Golden Eagle pass for the National Parks. It costs $50 and covers admission to national parks, national monuments, etc. for everyone in the car for a year.

What kind of price range for hotels, Tony?
What's the longest period of time you plan to spend in any one city?
Do realize that places like the Grand Canyon will be VERY cold in December.
The Grand Canyon (tourist areas) average 19 degrees F at night in Dec, with a high of only 46 during the day.
Las Vegas averages 46 for a high and 34 for a low in December.

I agree with the warning about the cold, BUT it's important to realize that 46 in the daytime may feel great. At higher elevations the air is thinner and drier, so it feels warmer. If there's no wind, you may be okay in shirtsleeves in the sun.

I live in a mountain area with annual lows into the minus twenties (F). Our family joke is that we feel coldest every year when we visit overcast places at sea level with a wind, even when much farther south (e.g. San Diego, CA, Kerrville, TX and Brownsville, TX).